Lavillenie is the favorite for Gold, but there's FOUR vaulters (Holzdeppe, Barber, Braz, and Filippidis) with outdoor PRs this year between 5.91-5.93 contending for Silver and Bronze (and Gold if RL falters).

My pick for Silver is Shawn Barber (of course), with prior winner Raphael Holzdeppe for the Bronze. Then Braz and Filippidis to round out the top 5.

Who's your picks?

Kirk

Run. Plant. Jump. Stretch. Whip. Extend. Fly. Clear. There is no tuck! THERE IS NO DELAY!

Do we know the height progressions? that could be a factor. Didn't Holzdeppe beat Lavillinie on misses at one meet? A jump of around 5.90 on a first attempt could beat Lavillinie if he's off just a bit. I would look for either Holzdeppe or Barber as being likely in that scenario.

Among notable casualties of the qualification were the South American record holder Thiago Braz and the reigning world indoor champion Konstantinos Filippidis.

Filippidis bowed out early, after three failures at 5.65m. The Brazilian had a rough competition right from the start. Braz was opening at 5.55m and in took him three attempts to clear the bar. He then had a confident clearance at 5.65m, but at the qualifying height it was not to be.

Nice pic of Barber on the IAAF multimedia page: http://www.iaaf.org/multimedia. This link may not last long, but today his pic is the first one listed.

Here's the prize money that will be awarded for each event. Barber will not be eligible for prize money if he wishes to retain his NCAA amateur status. Anyone care to predict the TOP EIGHT? It should be easier, now that the 16 finalists have been decided.